Club Passim on Palmer Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge.
In mid-February, the acrid fog of gloom descends upon some New Englanders. If frigid winds, like edges of a serrated knives, are sawing at the base of your brain, or for that matter, if only a paper cut is about to push you over the brink into the slate-gray, emotionless abyss of depression, stop! Relief is just a song or two away.
Visit the Museum. Not any museum, but the David Wax Museum, the folk/bluegrass/old timey musical group that brought the excitement of a sun-filled Spring morning to Club Passim in Cambridge tonight. Mandolins, acoustic guitars, fiddles, a Dobro, drum, accordion and even a bass saxophone blended with the harmonized voices of this six-person band. Gospel and folk songs, along with music gathered from Central and South America, had the audience grinning and bobbing their heads to the rhythms. And Passim’s 30-foot-by-40-foot basement venue provided the relaxed, comfortable milieu for the audience of approximately 125 to enjoy this talented band.
For over 50 years, musicians such as Joan Baez, Tom Rush, Taj Mahal, and Maria Muldaur have performed here. Originally called Club 47, this basement room “may have been the most influential club of its kind during the 1960s folk boom,” states Passim’s website. “And it was here that a friend of then 17-year-old Joan Baez rented the club out just to get her on stage. Baez quickly built a worshipful following and became a regular feature. Here, she introduced Bob Dylan who played between acts.”
But, if you can’t get to Club Passim and are not able to see a Museum performance, at least listen to their CDs. I’m not a doctor, but I still prescribe two CDs to each depression suffer, and advise them to listen carefully and call me in the morning.
Also, I’m willing to lend out my two, personally autographed (by David Wax) CDs, but only to those who are willing to e-mail to me a picture of someone smiling (or frowning if that’s possible) as they listen to The David Wax Museum.
The 30-foot-by-40-foot room where many now well-known
performers got a boost for their careers.
The opening act: "The Honey Dewdrops".
The main act: "The David Wax Museum".
David Wax.
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